Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan, Transcend Art and Peace
Created: January 4, 2002
Latest Update: January 4, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org

The Zambia Project

By Berthena Kemp

Copyright: Jeanne Curran, Susan R. Takata, and Berthena Kemp: January 2002.
and Individual Authors. "Fair Use" encouraged.

On Wednesday, January 2, 2002, Berthena Kemp wrote:

Subject: Zambia Project

I hope you are enjoying this winters break: would appreciate hearing from you concerning the next step for my project. Do you think I will be ready for a spring graduation? As suggested I have ordered the film Seraphina and I hope it will give me more insight concerning the conditions. I am also in touch with a group that was instrumenntal in digging a well for an entire community. When can I get together with you concerning my next step? Please E-mail me a response.

Berthena

On Friday, January 4, 2002, jeanne responded:

Berthena, It's a little hard to tell you what you should do NEXT because a thesis project isn't a step by step exercise. It's an opportunity for you to organize your own project and make your own decisions about what to do NEXT. A part of what the thesis project tells the department is that you have mastered sociological analysis to a level that you can so structure a small project.

You tell me that you have ordered a film, Seraphina. But you don't tell anything about the film or why you think it is relevant to your thesis project. So NEXT, you should sit down and write a couple of paragraphs about Seraphina. Then I will know what you know about Seraphina. Those couple of paragraphs will become a part of your review of literature. So then you have written a couple of paragraphs for your thesis. See!

Then NEXT, you must conceptually link Seraphina to the Zambia project. That means that you must identify some idea or scene in the film, or, at this point, since you don't have the film yet, some fact or idea in what you have read or seen about the film, that caused you to think the film would be important to the Zambia project. That's the concept part. The linking part comes in your identifying specifically the concept in the Zambia project that helped you make the connection between the film and the Zambia project. What do you think the film will show you? How do you think that will help you understand the Zambia project?

None of this is very complicated. Describe this in your own words. Then send it to me immediately, so we can edit it together. Then a piece of your thesis is done.

NEXT, you tell me that you are in contact with people who have undertaken projects in Zambia. This fits into your thesis project in the following ways:

• Methods and Procedures: Write a paragraph or so on how you contacted these people. Record meetings, phone conversations, letters, whatever. This is part of the process for building an international network. The purpose of this section is to let others know precisely how you went about the process so they will have some guidance if they want to follow similar procedures.

• Theoretical Background: You should also write a paragraph or so conceptually linking what you expect you can learn from these people that will benefit the Zambia project. In what way are these people a resource for building a network of connections across the ocean? Again, send this to me immediately. That permits me to ask questions that you may not have thought of, and then we can edit that paragraph and put it into your review of literature and theoretical background.

NEXT, you have told me several times how much you have read about Zambia. Yet I haven't got the slightest idea what you know about Zambia. You need to begin to put what you have learned into your review of literature. That means you should write a paragraph or so on each of the things you have learned, the source from which you learned it carefully cited, and conceptually link that fact or concept to the Zambia project. How do each of these things you have learned relate to our project on Zambia?

You should send these brief statements in to me, so that we can edit them together.

Now, does that help? And I suggest that for the NEXT step, you ask yourself what you should do next. And then tell me what your next step should be.

love and peace, jeanne

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